Faces
by thebelovedsacrifice
Summary: In a post-apocalyptic world where the air is unsafe and people wear gas masks their entire lives, Eren meets traveler, smuggler, and anarchist Levi. Witnessing the horrors of the virus' affects on someone for the first time, Eren makes a choice to leave his city with the mysterious man. Includes romance, horror, drama. Ereri (Eren/Levi pairing). Multi-chapter, ongoing.
1. Chapter 1- The Virus

It is nearing the end of summer when I meet him. The heat still rolls in periodic waves across the cracked pavement and the rare breezes still stir up layers of sticky dusts, but the nights are getting shorter and the delivery trucks will soon be coming more often. I'm in the middle of a street fight when he shows up. Granted, I'm the one who started it, but the man deserves the beating I swear he will get for trying to snatch food off my best friend. Except, it's me who is getting a beating now.

At any other time I'm sure he would have stood on the corner of the street, eyes narrowed against the powerful sun and body relaxed against a telephone pole, simply watching as if he saw teenagers getting pummeled in every street he traveled upon. But something different happens with this fight.

I don't notice it at first. The man I'm quarreling with stops moving, but I am too occupied with taking advantage of the situation and retaliating his merciless blows, all the while trying not to choke on the blood that is gathering in the capsule of my ventilation mask to think much of it. The man had halts in mid-pursuit then doubles over, proceeding to cough violently. A thick substance of dark brown mixed with blood oozes from the crevices of his mask. I'm unsure as to what is happening, but I do know that this is the perfect opportunity to be the one to throw the last punch.

"Don't." He's between us in seconds; a leather gloved hand curling around my fist, stopping it, and choppy black strands of short hair swing in momentum to follow after the sharp snap of his head as he looks towards my offender. He watches, unfazed, as the man sinks to his knees then hits the hot asphalt. My mind is still spinning in shock when he lets go of my hand and turns towards me.

I instinctively take a step back when I see his face. He wears a permanent crease between his eyebrows and his eyes are small, heavy-lidded, and the color of dull silver. He's a full head shorter than myself but everything about him is intimidating. His gas mask is tipped with an upright triangular vent which extends from where his nose must be down to cover out to the corners of his mouth. Two large cylindrical filters rest on the sides of the mask and the thick leather extends from across the bridge of his nose to wrap around below and above his ears and then down to encompass his neck. A short chain extends across the front of his neck, connecting the two sides of the slit in the leather, for flexibility, that resides there. It was a fairly old model compared to mine.

He looks me up and down once then shifts his eyes away towards the crowd forming around the fallen man.

"You better find some other place to hang around, kid. The virus is probably trying to claw its way under that pretty mask of your's as we speak."

_Right. The virus…the virus?!_ I glance over at the dead man. This is what the virus does to people? I'd never seen it with my own eyes. People had always worn these masks from the moment they are born. The air hasn't been safe in a long time. One only survives if they manage to scavenge a new mask as they grow up into adults. My late mother used to tell me that when the outbreak first began the government mass produced and handed out these ventilation masks to everyone and had stations for free supplies and nutrient and liquids injections. However, supposedly that all stopped only a month after. Now, the only sign that the government still exists out there somewhere is the periodic arrival of delivery trucks carrying our food, water, and occasionally spare amounts of other supplies as well. Yet, even to reach the trucks, one has to fight his way through the frenzy. With this sudden interruption of the virus' affects spewing forth before my eyes, however, my ignorance is shattering.

I look back down and start to open my mouth with a reply, but the man had already slipped away. I let out a shaky breath. I want to get away from this and forget it ever happened as soon as possible. I find the friend I'd been defending at the front edge of the crowd, mouth slacked open and eyes wide and terrified.

"Armin, let's scram!" I grab his arm and start to pull.

"Eren, he's—they—" He sputters, eyes glued to the infected man.

"No." It was all I could offer as an explanation right now and I pull him along, taking the long way back to the space we'd been inhabiting lately in an old office building, not wanting to run into any more people. In a place with no one to enforce rules, it was hard to settle down permanently in one city or even one dwelling. We moved to this city only four days ago, and already my sister had been talking of hopping towns again.

I enter the small office on the upper floor, letting go of Armin's hand and moving straight to the space beneath the desk, digging beneath an old blanket to where I hid the last of our nutrients needles. They were gone.

"Looking for something?"

I nearly jump out of my own skin and let out what could only have been the most embarrassing squeal of my life. I whip my head around shooting a glare at whoever chose to invade my privacy now of all times. Armin still stands by the doorway staring at the intruder as well. It seems he hadn't found his voice again in time to warn me. The shorter man is leaning inconspicuously in the back corner of the room. He drops one empty syringe and holds up the last few. I scramble to my feet and make a lunge towards him, which he all too easily side-steps away from.

"Woah, kid, learn to take it down a notch and _breath_." I must have still been glaring when he spoke. I keep glaring afterwards too, though, and he soon shrugs and sighs.

"I found this place unattended. That makes it mine for claim, fair and square." He tosses me the couple of capped needles. "If you don't mind sharing the place for the next couple days, I'll let you have these back."

I caught it and watch, not knowing if I should just move us out, wait for my sister, to come back, or try and fight him for the space, as he sits down and stretches. Too bewildered by his peculiar demeanor to make up my mind right now, I give in and sit down across from him. Armin follows my lead and sits to my left, occupying himself with carefully injecting his arm with one of the needles.

"Only a couple days? Got somewhere to be?" I ask slowly.

"I'm going to the capital. It's about time the rest of humanity makes its move. We should start standing up for ourselves." The way he continues to speak such strong ideology with such a straight face and even voice throws me off and confuses me. I push past it though in favor of trying to learn more.

"The capital?!" I reply quickly, "You want an audience with the King? No, there's no way they would see just anyone! That is, if you can even get past the city walls in the first place." I waved my hands dramatically and hope I don't look too surprised. No one from the outside would ever go near the capital. It's untouchable for those like us without wealth, power, or even families or a home.

"Something like that comes way later." He draws out the last words to match the rolling of his eyes. "I'm meeting some acquaintances there. We've been hired out to transport something. We'll receive details onsite. But, it's a good opportunity…" He trails off, obviously realizing that he'd begun to share more than he intended to with a kid he just met. He looks back at me and must see my eagerness and intrigue, for his eyes soon reflect a brief inner struggle to go on.

"The capital is full of nothing but cowards," he begins, "micromanaging out food supplies with their own benefits in mind and leaving the rest of us out here to struggle day to day just to survive. They've left us at the mercy of the virus, while they've probably already discovered the cure within their cushy walls. We grow up with stories of the virus, yet the concept seems other-worldly to all of us. Yes, we believe it exists. But it was in the same way people pray to a god; a strict religion you grow up your whole life believing in, yet never really experiencing yourself. But now you too have seen it first-hand. More and more people are seeing it now; the virus is becoming more active. I'm not about to stand by and watch humanity fall again."

I stare back at him as he speaks calmly and try to picture him storming the capital with a cape and an anarchist flag, cannon fire sounding off from behind him. The image is absurd. Yet, he was right in a way. I did watch, for the first time, as someone practically exploded, with all those liquids pouring from him, and fell dead at my feet. I can't deny something is changing. Can I seriously look the man before me in the eyes and tell him he's crazy? No, I can't, and something in the back of my mind tells me I should consider his ploy seriously. I glance over at Armin and he too is looking upon the man before with awe and fascination. I can practically see the cogs churning in his brain as if picking apart and analyzing every detail of his story and philosophy, if you could call it that.

I then remember I am still holding one of the needle he'd practically stolen off of us, so I uncap it and jabbed it into my arm for good measure. I'm still in a bit of a bad mood from his little stunt of invading our room. I toss the empty syringe away and is about to grab our blanket and start ignoring the man for the night when he spoke again as if my lack of reply to his noble speech was to be expected anyway.

"You're name, kid? I'm Levi."

"Eren. And that's Armin. This is the only blanket." I say, throwing the item over Armin and myself, "And this place is small, so if I catch you too close, or if you kick me in the night, I'll have your head, got it?" I lay down before he can retort or before Armin can scold me and pull the large blanket over my head. I feel a twinge of guilt when he doesn't argue back and I peeked out to look back at him. He is settling down against the wall beneath the window, closing his eyes. I turn away hesitantly, and try not to dwell on it. The sound of Armin's light breathing soon permeates the silence. I think I can hear a second rhythm of breathes, but it's hard to tell. My sister won't be back until later into the night, but before I can consider if I should stay up and wait for her, I'm already falling into a deep sleep.

A/N: Next Chapter will be up within the next few days! Please follow for updates! Also, please drop some feedback~… Thank you!


	2. Chapter 2- The Touch

**A/N: Hey, super sorry a few days turned into a week! But school work happened...we have two big breaks coming up starting next week, though, so hopefully that means faster updates! Enjoy the next chapter! (Finally a little spark or two goes flying~)****  
><strong>**Also, thank you to a super special friend Koko for a bit of inspiration with this chapter (;**

I awake to a figure standing over me. It has mid-length, cropped black hair and pursed pink lips barely visible atop a crimson scarf. I let out a groan at the realization and roll over, unearthing the rest of my face to meet narrowed black eyes. She's most definitely unhappy. As usual, I don't have the slightest idea why.

"Good morning, Eren." Her tone is as is as simplistic as always, but I can practically see the unspoken questions beneath. I finally sit up, wanting to get this over with.

"Care to explain what _that_ is doing here?" She makes a rough gesture towards another figure leaning, ankles crossed, against the wall beside the window. He is doing a great job of ignoring her and I want to bring attention to his impressive skills, but Armin's voice cuts through my thoughts first.

"I'm sorry, Eren, I tried to explain it all to her…" He trails off, unsure if he's actually helping or hurting at this point. I answer through a loud yawn.

"It's Levi." She looks at me when I say this as if I've grown a third head. I forgot how much of a stickler she is for detail, so I try again.

"He's going stay with us for a few days. It's payback for… a favor." As I say this, I wonder if it really was a favor. All he really did was stop me from punching the dying man and told me to leave the place as soon as possible. He even tried to take over our office-gone-bedroom. I haven't even asked him about what exactly happened yesterday. But, I have a feeling he's the only one who can tell me what I want to know, clearly and uncensored. I'd have to wait until she's gone, though; I most certainly don't want her to know about the fight.

"No he's not." She responds adamantly, "Favor be gone, he's entirely suspicious!" I nearly chuckle when I spot Levi's eyebrow twitch from across the room.

"Whatever Armin told you is probably true." I offer and quickly change the subject. "Did you just now get back? Were you out all night?" Mikasa's "job" included visiting various characters around the city and trading information. She gets paid only sometimes, but she insists it's worth it for the extra supplies she gets from them, especially because we always seem to run out of liquid injections faster than the supply trucks arrive. She's been doing it in each city we've moved to for a while now. It usually didn't keep her all night though.

"Yes…" She looks away from me when she answers and there is something off about her voice. I don't miss the way Levi whips his head around sharply to study her with knowing eyes. It's hard to tell, but I think she may shrink back just a little under this particular gaze.

Shouts quickly interrupt our poor excuse for a conversation and all four of us pile before the small rectangular window. Two over-sized military trucks can be seen pulling up on the side of the road, thick metal frames cracked and weathered with use atop four over-sized tires. People had already begun to move from the shelter of the brick buildings onto the street. We need to get down there quickly if we want a chance at the goods. I turn away and run from the room, elbows barely making it past sharp corners and feet barely brushing the stairs as I tumble into the early morning light. I hear Mikasa's light footsteps close behind me and assume Armin isn't far away either. I toss myself into the mercy of the crowd, pushing through each violent arm and leg that attempts to keep me from moving forward. I spot Mikasa ahead of me towards the right and I veer off to the left hoping to find a quick path through as well. We've all merged to form a thick mass moving towards the goal, not unlike a rampaging organism, the competition so fierce it trickles down to be between each individual cell. I reach the middle before the monster hits the trucks with full force. I latch onto the first thing I touch to clamber forward, pulling myself over the people in front of me, arm extended to hook my fingers onto the bumper of one of the trucks. The heel of a boot presses down across every finger, but my joints are stuck rigid and a second hand joins the first on the hot metal. I soon stand tittering on the thin edge of the bed of the truck. I'm going to fall, so I may as well let myself fall forward into the mess of torn tarp and over-turned crates. However, I do not.

A sound I haven't heard since I was a child blows through my skull. I can no longer control my body, the air has left me. I catch a glimpse of spilled nutrients needles across the bed of the truck, but I can't reach them, already plummeting backwards. My fall is halted short as I collide with another body, but it's only long enough for my legs to hit the ground first before I crash sideways anyway, my head still managing to hit the concrete.

The monster's been scared; it retreats in even more chaos than before back towards the many brick buildings behind it. The sound cracks again and again and I think I see red, across the air, soaking the sun-bleached asphalt, and pouring from people's limbs. I upright myself and shove the dizziness aside in favor of sprinting away from the threat. I don't get very far, though, before a hand roughly grabs my collar and throws me to the ground. I struggle desperately until a calloused voice hisses in my ear.

"Stay down!" I freeze immediately. The voice holds an authority I don't think anyone could disobey and a familiar feeling crawls over me. Levi lays beside my body, hand presses firmly on my back, nails digging in desperately as if trying to claw through to the gravel below. Somewhere along the process of skidding to the ground the bottom of my shirt has been raised up and I can feel the asphalt burning through the top layer of my skin as I remain unmoving.

I twist my head to the side, wanting to stay aware of my surroundings, and my eyes latch onto three military men standing atop their trucks holding long automatic guns. Metallic shells litter the roofs below them and the gunshots continue, all the energy focused on one area below them. I twist to the other side. There's at least four people already shot through, still and silent, masks pressed to the ground and hands still outstretched towards the buildings in a useless attempt. The same dark fluids that interrupted my fight yesterday make a deep puddle around them. I nearly vomit at the realization. Two more figures are doubled over, bleeding from multiple wounds mostly to the arms and legs, and spewing forth the same bile out the capsule of their masks. I gasp for an intake of air against the heat rising off the ground near my singed lips and strain my eyes back towards the trucks, watching, out of focus, as they soon stop firing once they are certain the remaining two infected are done moving, and slip easily through the windows of the vehicles and drive on.

A few seconds pass, and then nearly a minute, before Levi finally moves, most of the pressure leaving me, and looks around cautiously before removing his hand from my back entirely. I sit up to find the street completely emptied of any living thing. My first thoughts jump to Mikasa and Armin and I rise quickly, probably too quickly as a surge of blood hits my head and I stumble forward. I feel his hand upon me again, gripping the upper section of my arm. A vague thought passes through my mind; I'd always assumed he wasn't partial to so much physical contact from his standoffish demeanor, but the idea is gone as soon as he starts guiding me off the street and back towards the stairwell we originally came from. I start to look behind me towards the street again, but his hand tightens its grip as if calling my attention back towards him. My eyes return without my consent to meet his own, finding an obvious warning in their narrow glint. I swallow down any anxiety or panic. I feel the start of that lead ball I'm so familiar with in the pit of my stomach, but it is nothing I haven't digested before. My mind wanders back to when my mother passed away; she'd been murdered by an unknown source in our living room, gas mask slashed clean through. Death, blood, and screaming were all present there too. I almost forgot it.

As if my thoughts are plastered in bold font across my face, which is probably the case more or less, I feel him squeeze my arm in an almost gentle manner before letting go entirely once we reach the steps. I see Armin's blonde bangs first before the entirety of him appears, peeking cautiously, over the banister above us and my thoughts are whisked away once again. He calls my name and rushes down the steps two at a time, leaving him slightly out of breath, and throws his arms around me.

"You're ok! Eren, we couldn't find you; Mikasa almost ran straight back while they were still shooting, but I had to stop her." He continues speaking softly in a desperate hush as I pat him on the back once before moving from his embrace as Mikasa comes rushing down the stair case.

"Eren! I swear to god if you do that again, I'll sell your organs on the black market while you sleep and you'll wake up even more heartless than you already are!" Levi snorts at her outburst and I first blink, then simply tosses her a sloppy grin as an apology that only makes her fume more as we make our way back to our room.

"Why would they do that? They've never carried guns before. Not that we've ever seen at least. There wasn't anything different here than the usual…" Armin sits down by the desk, arms and legs crossed, thinking deeply. My mind flashes back to the scene just minutes ago as I was pressed to the pavement beneath Levi; the same deep brown substance as yesterday drenched those people today too, and the delivery men's guns were pointed only at them. Did they know what was happening and try to exterminate them? I soon feel a pair of eyes and look up quickly to find Levi studying me as if trying to read my thoughts. Once he catches my eyes he pushes off from the wall he'd taken up again and crosses the room towards my position by the door.

"Blood." He states as he reaches towards my left eye. I instinctively flinch at the contact when he runs a surprisingly gentle finger across the underside of the raw skin scraped from the rough pavement. It must have been barely visible before, but now the little red beads are most likely starting to surface as they do with these types of burns. I go cross-eyed for a moment as I watch his finger move back into my line of sight. He produces a handkerchief from his left pocket and wipes the smear of blood off his finger. He keeps his expression still, but I notice the slightest twitch of an eyebrow in response to my somehow offensive bodily fluid. I'm left wondering why he even performed the kind gesture in the first place.

Levi returns to his position across the room, peaking out the window once, like he's checking if someone is watching or eavesdropping, as if that could actually happen on the top floor.

"We need to leave town. The virus is breeding here too."

Mikasa turns to him in surprise while I mull over his choice of words. No one knows much about the virus or where it came from apart from its supposed accidental release from a lab near the capital. How much does Levi actually know? On that note, where did the man even _come from_? He has the disposition of someone hardened by years of difficulty and travel.

"Isn't the virus always here, though," Armin asks cautiously, "in the air?" Levi shifts slightly, as if a bit uncomfortable with the subject. His tone is guarded as he answers.

"In theory, yes. But the particles can't be everywhere at once nor can they survive long in the open without host cells. The fact that nearly six people just died from infection means it has chosen this place for its next breeding grounds." He spits the last few words venomously.

"How do we know that's true? Did you see it?" Mikasa chimes in distrustfully, taking a threatening step towards Levi. He simply shifts his focus to me expectantly.

I inhale a shaky breath and clear my throat. "We both saw it. Just now." I add, still wanting to keep the incident yesterday in the past as long as possible. "We didn't get a chance to run far…they shot the six people then drove away once they confirmed their deaths." I gulp against the way my voice threatens to crack and look back towards Levi. His expression had softened for a few moments as he watched me speak.

Mikasa seems to calm down at my account and her and Armin exchange contemplative glances.

"We aren't the only ones who will think of leaving now. We should get ahead while we can." Levi offers one final argument and moves towards the door. I bite my lip but step towards the door as well. I hear Mikasa behind me take a sharp breath and then comes the rustle of fabric as Armin packs up the blanket. As we exit through the doorframe, a flutter of crimson brushes past my cheeks as Mikasa stomps past both of us.

"Fine, but _I_ lead the way." He doesn't argue her display, but I think I see a hint of amusement tug at his pink lips.


End file.
